Knowing how a building uses energy over time – whether over a day or over a period of years – is critical to managing operating expenses and improving energy performance. A variety of tools and resources are available to track and monitor building energy consumption, costs, and other metrics.

1. THE HIGH PERFORMANCE PORTFOLIO:
ENERGY TRACKING AND
ACCOUNTING
SUMMARY:
Knowing how a building uses energy over time – whether over a day or over a period of years – is
critical to managing operating expenses and improving energy performance. A variety of tools and
resources are available to track and monitor building energy consumption, costs, and other metrics.
What are the differences among these different levels of energy tracking? Who should use the
information, and how?
At a basic level, reviewing energy bills allows managers to monitor costs. Benchmarking with
ENERGY STAR’s Portfolio Manager lets management teams identify monthly or yearly patterns and
obtain a normalized metric of energy performance. Digging deeper, 15-minute interval data shows
whether daily energy performance falls within expectations and begins to identify specific equipment
or procedures to target to improve energy efficiency.
A combination of these methods helps building operators and management to identify trends
and outliers, and ultimately to enhance energy performance through greater consciousness and
awareness – and track how performance relates to a plan of action.
IN DEPTH:
The adage “You can’t manage what you don’t measure” is apt – knowledge is power when it comes
to improving energy performance. Property managers, building operators, asset managers, and
owners use a variety of tools to gather data and measure
energy performance. This information forms three distinct
“levels” of energy tracking, each of which provides insight
ELECTRIC BILLS AND
into certain aspects of energy performance. LOAD FACTOR
LEVEL 1: BILL REVIEW AND PAYMENT Senior building engineers recommend
periodically checking the load factor – the
The most basic level is monitoring utility bills, just as you
ratio of the actual kWh delivered to a
might monitor how much money you spend on gas each
building in a designated period of time
time you fill up your car. Utility bills are typically monitored
to the total possible kWh that could be
in varying capacities by property managers and engineers.
delivered, based on peak demand. The
average load factor for an office building is
typically around 50%.
Load Factor = Total kWh Used / [Peak kW
Demand x Days in Bill Cycle x 24 Hours/Day]
A load factor significantly higher than 50%
for an office building may indicate that the
building systems are operating longer than
average. As operating hours are reduced or
energy efficiency increases, the load factor
should generally decrease.

2. Organizations track billing information at the property and portfolio level; this accounting may occur
at the property, off-site at a centralized corporate location, or via a utility billing service provider.
Some companies use advanced software (available commercially or through a utility provider) to view
energy information in a comprehensive, interactive “dashboard” format, with meaningful metrics of
energy and financial performance. Users can select from a variety of charts, graphs, and reporting
formats to analyze utility bill data, often with the help of the software company’s technical support or
training. Many leading commercial tools link data to ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager (see Level 2)
and enable trend logging (see Level 3), serving as a bridge between utility bill monitoring and more
enhanced levels of awareness. Software programs include Advantage IQ, Utility Manager Pro, and
Energy WorkSite. The BetterBricks Web site has a list of commercial as well as utility company software
tools available in the Northwest.
However utility bills are tracked, it is important that the on-the-ground building staff has access to – and
consistently monitors – the data. Avoid finding yourself in a situation where you don’t know where utility
data is housed or who is responsible for reviewing it. Building staff should regularly compare meter
readings to billing data, double-check that your property is on the correct rate schedule, and generally
ensure the accuracy of the bills. Further, property managers should track actual costs against budget
projections and use this information to identify issues and financial exceptions (when energy costs are
significantly higher or lower than the budget line item). Because the utility bills ultimately impact tenant
operating expense allocations, and variances directly impact expense stops and base years for new
leases, it is important that bills are reviewed and shared with accounting staff and building management.
It’s also important to look for trends in both consumption and costs. If costs are increasing but
consumption is going down, this signifies an increase in rates, not to be confused with a decrease in
efficiency. Many utility providers will compare usage and costs to the same month from the previous year
right on the bill; this is a good place to start to identify whether the building is experiencing an upward or
downward trend, but it doesn’t give the
whole picture – for example, extremely
CITY OF SEATTLE Summary of Charges as of June 11, 2008 hot or cold weather or changes in
Previous balance: 3,1306.08
Account number: Payments applied: 3,1306.08 CR tenancy may be influencing relative
1-2345-678901 Balance: 0.00
Total adjustments: 0.00
energy performance and should be
Customer Premises
number number Current billing: 3,109.36
further investigated.
Check accuracy to TOTAL AMOUNT DUE ON July 02, 2008 $3,109.36
ensure proper Service address:
Compare Your Electricity Usage
processing of rebates. 1234 MAIN ST.
2745 No. of days this period: 29
Chart provides 13 months to Same period last year: 31 This example identifies how to interpret
enable comparison to same period 2196
kWh consumption this period: 61800
Avg. kWh/day
last year. Note different # of days
when comparing month-to-month.
1647 Same period last year: 64670 some of the information available on a
1098 Avg. kWh per day: 2131.03
549
Same period last year: 2086.12 typical electric bill.
Blended electric rate = bill amount ($3,109.36) ÷ Avg. kWh cost this period: $99.51/day
consumption (61,800) = 5¢/kWh 0
JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN
2007 Bill Months 2008
Meter only reads 1/10 of the usage; number must
be multiplied by 10 to get actual consumption.
DETAILED BILLING INFORMATION – ELECTRIC SERVICE
Meter Service Service Service Previous Current Multi- Consumption Power Rate Unit Amount
Number Category From Through Reading Reading plier / Units Factor Code Charge
12345 KWH 5/5/08 6/3/08 42848 49028 10 61800.00
Subtract previous reading from current reading and multiply by 10 to get all electricity consumed during the cycle (kWh).
12345 KW 5/5/08 6/3/08 16.21 17.14 10 171.40
Multiply current reading by 10 to get peak demand - the most energy that was consumed during any 15-minute period during the bill cycle (kW).
12345 KVAR 5/5/08 6/3/08 63114 66454 10 33400.00 0.879
Unit of measure for determining power factor (how effectively building’s equipment converts utility’s electric current to useful power.)
Medium General Energy 61800.00 EMDC 0.0467 2,886.06
Demand 171.40 EMDC 1.0300 176.54
Power Factor Penalty 33400.00 0.879 EMDC 0.0014 46.76
CURRENT BILLING: $3,109.36
Sample Electric Bill Explanation and Calculations

3. LEVEL 2: ENERGY STAR BENCHMARKING
To address the issues that make consumption and costs by themselves incomplete metrics, the U.S. EPA
ENERGY STAR program created the national energy performance rating system. The rating is housed
in Portfolio Manager, an online tool that normalizes data for some of the factors that complicate energy
consumption (such as weather, occupancy, and building function), generating a 1-100 rating for many
types of buildings. The normalization embedded in the rating allows buildings to be compared to other,
similar buildings, ensuring that increased air conditioning use during an abnormally hot summer or an
increase in occupant density is not interpreted as a decrease in efficiency. At a greater level of scrutiny
than keeping tabs on your gasoline receipts, the energy performance rating is similar to measuring a
car’s miles per gallon rating.
Regardless of whether a building is eligible for a 1-100 energy performance rating, Portfolio Manager
provides high-level trending and energy performance monitoring, tracking metrics including
greenhouse gas emissions, consumption, costs, weather-normalized energy intensity, costs per square
foot, and many more metrics.
The process of entering the necessary data into Portfolio Manager, establishing an energy performance
baseline, and monitoring trends is referred to as benchmarking. A range of individuals within a real
estate organization may be involved with benchmarking energy performance at a property. Property
managers, engineers, and other on-site staff may be responsible for collecting the necessary occupancy
and utility bill data.
Once a building is benchmarked, its rating and other metrics are useful for high-level energy
performance monitoring and tracking. The data might be shared with asset managers and senior
executives to help reinforce accountability for energy performance and compare multiple properties
within a portfolio. The data outputs are also relevant to monthly, quarterly, and annual monitoring of
energy performance, and savings trends at the property level.
Portfolio Manager is equipped with features that facilitate sharing information, allowing users to:
• Set baselines from which to measure progress
• Create views that show preferred metrics in a certain order
Sample Portfolio Manager Facility Summary

4. • Generate a Statement of Energy Performance summarizing the building’s performance in a
brief snapshot
• Download an Energy Performance Report, summarizing the performance of a group of buildings
LEVEL 3: TREND LOGGING AND INTERVAL DATA
Zooming in another level from monthly data, real-time metering data (or interval data) may be used
to identify anomalies in energy use for quick reaction at the building level on a daily basis. Interval
data gives building energy demand over intervals as short as 15 minutes. The practice of using this
information to analyze and understand building energy use is known as trend logging. Continuing
the car analogy, interval data is similar to the display of real-time information across your dashboard –
speed, RPM, temperature, and more.
Trend logging is particularly useful to on-the-ground building engineers and property managers.
Graphs of interval data (or load profiles) can help them pinpoint exactly when the building is
experiencing peaks in energy use, which set peak demand rates and can lead to identification or
confirmation of what is using the energy.
Examples of issues that can be identified are shown on the sample graph below. In addition to the
examples on the graph, also look for unnecessary weekend, holiday, and after-hours operation. Staff
should be trained to identify problems that may be able to be corrected at little or no cost – since the
cause of unusual energy use patterns is often an operational or controls issue.
Sample Weekday Interval Data Graph
Daily Total Usage
Original operations: 4,770 kWh
New operations: 4,320 kWh
Reduced whole-building daily energy consumption by 9.5%
Systems pull back as
building reaches set-
HVAC systems begin to turn off or pare back at
point
5pm
Optimum stop lets
systems turn off ½ Spike occurs at 7:30pm when
hour earlier and coast indoor temperature rises above
for rest of the day after-hours set point and cooling
system turns on
Building operator raises set-back set Lights off when
point by a few degrees so cooling janitors leave at
does not kick in after-hours 9:30pm
Building systems Systems begin turning on Janitors begin team cleaning;
begin turning on 2 hours later with most lights off at 8pm
at 4am optimum start enabled

5. This data may be available from the utility company for free or a small fee, sometimes with the
installation of a special meter, and in many cases is available to be downloaded at the building
operator’s convenience from the utility Web site.1
1
A building’s energy management system (EMS) may also provide interval data, but due to their complexity, EMS
capabilities will not be covered in detail here.
THE BOTTOM LINE:
• Beyond paying the monthly utility bills, managing • Different individuals need access to different levels
energy performance requires staying on top of a of information, but real estate practitioners should
variety of other information. understand all the data sources, where each one
• A combination of energy tracking and accounting flows to, and how they interact with each other. A
mechanisms can help you get the whole picture, high performance building needs all three levels of
including: energy tracking.
o Annual and monthly metrics of costs and • Monitoring trends and promptly identifying outliers
consumption as identified by monitoring can avoid potentially costly issues that detract
utility bills from energy performance, while also highlighting
positive trends and quantifying savings from energy
o Normalized, comparable energy performance
improvements.
indicators accessed through ENERGY STAR
Portfolio Manager • Tracking only gets you so far – understand what the
data is telling you, and then follow through with
o Day-to-day hourly monitoring, available
actions to improve energy performance – leading to
through interval data
better management of costs.
USEFUL LINKS:
The High Performance Portfolio
www.betterbricks.com/office/framework
Benchmark energy performance with ENERGY STAR Portfolio Manager:
www.energystar.gov/benchmark
To learn more collecting and interpreting energy data, as well as to locate tools for tracking
utility consumption, visit the Performance Indicators page on the BetterBricks website:
www.betterbricks.com/detailpage.aspx?id=491
Visit the BetterBricks Building Operations Web site for guidance to improve performance:
www.betterbricks.com/SubHomePage.aspx?ID=6.
November 2009 www.betterbricks.com/office/briefs